Task Force on Forest Management Certification Programs

Summary Table:
A Comparison of Forestry Standards Programs in the United States

	SFISM	FSC	Green Tag	Forest Stewardship Program (FSP)	ISO 14000	Tree Farm
ADMINISTRATIVE ELEMENTS
Sponsor	The American Forest & Paper Association	FSC membership: 130 members from 36 countries	National Forestry Association (NFA)	U.S. Forest Service	Worldwide Federation of National Standards Bodies	American Forest Foundation
Administrator	The American Forest & Paper Association	Secretariat and Board of Directors; certifiers.	National Forestry Association (NFA)	State forestry agencies	Technical Committee Secretariats and Central Secretariat	Robert S. Simpson, Director
Funding Sources	The members fund individual programs and provide support to statewide and national activities.	Government and foundation grants, accreditation fees, membership fees.	Fees for auditing services.	Federal and state funding.	Direct financing from member bodies, member subscriptions, and income from publications.	Contributions, grants, magazine sales, logo item sales.
Mission	To promote Sustainable Forestry Principles, including the Implementation Guidelines, that constitute the AF&PA’s members’ commitment to sustainable forestry and the measures by which the public can benchmark this commitment. The objective is to achieve a much broader practice of sustainable forestry throughout the United States. In this way AF&PA will perceptibly improve the performance of member companies, and will set new standards for the entire forest industry as well as for other landowners.	To improve forest practices through market-based incentive programs.	To provide private landowner’s recognition of their responsible and sustainable woodland ownership. Such designation may bring a market premium as "green certified forest products." The program complements those sponsored by the American Tree Farm and the International Forest Stewardship Council.	To assist private forest landowners to more actively manage their forest and related resource.	Improve international communication and collaboration and to improve the smooth and equitable growth of international trade. To provide a standardized mechanism by which a compnay can address teh significant environmentalt aspects and related impacts of its activities, products, and services.	To ensure sustainable forests in the U.S. To provide outreach to landowners with information, education, and voluntary verification of sustainable practices.
Eligible Parties	AF&PA members	Interested landowners and companies that manage forestlands or produce forest products.	Private non-industrial landowners who are members of National Woodland Owners Association.	Non-industrial private landowners in the U.S.	Any company or organization involved in environmental management.	Any landowner with 10 acres or more of contiguous forest land.
Intended Benefits	To meet the needs of humanity for essential wood and paper products while protecting and enhancing other forest values.	Independent review of operations, improvement of management over time, marketplace access and differentiation of product (based on aspects of production), empowerment of consumer to choose environmentally sensitive product.	Independent review of operations, improvement of management over time, marketplace access and differentiation of product (based on aspects of production), empowerment of consumer to choose environmentally sensitive product. Keep non-industrial lands in a productive and healthy condition for present and future owners to increase the economic and environmental benefits of the land.	Keep non-industrial lands in a productive and healthy condition for present and future owners to increase the economic and environmental benefits of these lands.	Enables consistent management based on the company's knowledge of its environment aspects, related impacts and its other legal requirements. Provides a tool for communicating the company's progress and accomplishments to its suppliers, customers, employees and management.	Free visits every five years by professional resource managers, Tree Farmer magazine, state and local workshops, state newsletters, national convention, local recognition.
STANDARDS, PROCESSES, AND MEASURES
Standards Setting Process	The SFISM applies only to members of the AF&PA. The requirements of the Initiative are recommended by the SFISM Task Group, composed of members of the AF&PA, and accepted and approved by the association’s Board of Directors.	Multi-stakeholder, open, transparent and consensus-based process. Processes occur at the international, national, and regional levels.	Landowner must seek professional advice at appropriate times. Post-harvest evaluation required.	- Basic policy and appropriations authority set in the 1990 Farm Bill. - National standards and guidelines developed by USFS in consultation with state foresters. - Further implementation measures developed by individual state committees. State committee membership stipulated by federal guides to include: USFS, NRCS, FSA and Extension Service, local governments, soil and water cons. dist., consulting foresters, ENGO's, forest products industry, forest landowners, land trust organizations, conservation org., state F&W agencies, others as deemed appropriate.	A Technical Secretariat is identified. Drafting of the standards carried out by technical working groups at the international and country level. Formal approval of standards should be based on evidence of consensus.	Periodic review by independent 3rd party of forest conservation experts. Report presented to national Operating Committee. Standard creation of modification is proposed through working groups within the National Operating Committee. Working group's proposals presented to all state leadership and other stake-holders during series of regional meetings. Consensus is reached at the regional level and presented to National Op. Comm. Standards crafted into final form and distributed to all state programs.
Measurement of Compliance	Each member organization establishes its own policies and procedures for complying with the Principles and Implementation Guidelines. The owner or chief executive of the member organization must annually stipulatethat their organization is in substantial compliance with the SFISM. At that time, the organization is required to submit its data to the Association for the annual SFISM Progress Report. The SFISM Expert Review Panel, a group of independent forestry experts, reviews the annual report, evaluates the program, and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors for changes that clarify and improve the program.	Accredited certifiers verify organization's compliance on the ground to international / regional (if available) standards for forest management and against organization's forest management system. For chain-of-custody, production process monitored to ensure no contamination of non-certified wood into the certified production process.	NFA accredits individual foresters to certify against the standard.	Development of a Stewardship Plan for each ownership, coupled with on the ground monitoring of plan implementation.	Each company establishes processes and procedures for verifying conformance. Mechanisms for reporting results to management and continual improvement are required if a company intends to make public declarations of conformance. A number of auditing standards available within ISO 14000.	Foresters and other trained natural resource professionals audit member Tree Farms on a five year basis. Management plan is reviewed with Landowner. Property is physically inspected in accordance with program standards, guidelines, and performance measures.
Audit Mechanism	1st, 2nd, or 3rd party audits. Formal declarations of conformance are permitted under the recently approved Voluntary Verification component. Members may be visited during the year by a delegation from the Expert Review Panel.	3rd party audit.	3rd party audit.	Plan prepared and implementation monitored by state forester designee with field program reviews by USFS.	1st, 2nd, or 3rd party audit.	3rd party audit.
DEFINING THE STANDARD
Key Elements/ Objectives of Program	To use responsible practices; to protect forest health and productivity; to protect special sites; to continuously improve the practice of forest management.	Ten Principles: Compliance with laws and FSC principles; tenure and use rights and responsibilities; indigenous peoples rights; community relations and worker's rights; benefits from the forest; environmental impact; management plan; monitoring and assessment; maintenance of natural forests; plantations.	Forest security, general management and planning, tree harvesting, road construction, skidding/forwarding, post harvest evaluation within one year, product utilization, chemical applications, community relations, employee relations, economic viability, optimizing forest potential, record keeping and tracking.	Landowner Forest Stewardship Plan addresses: fish and wildlife habitat enhancement, T&E species, soil/water, wetlands, recreation/ aesthetics, forest management and timber harvesting.	1. Environmental management recognized as a high priority. 2. Establish and maintain communications with internal and external interested parties. 3. Determine legislative req. and those env. aspects associated with activities, products & services. 4. Develop commitment by everyone in org to env. protection & clearly assign responsibilities & accountabilities. 5. Promote env. planning throughout the life cycle of the product/process. 6. Establish a management discipline for achieving targeted performance. 7. Provide the right resources and sufficient training to achieve performance targets. 8. Evaluate performance against policy, env. obj. and targets, and make improvements where possible. 9. Establish process to review, monitor and audit system to identify opportunities for improvement. 10. Encourage vendors to establish EMS.	1. Broaden the practice of sustainable forestry. 2. Reforestation, 3. Water quality, 4. Wildlife habitat. 5. Forest aesthetics. 6. Protect special sites. 7. Biodiversity. 8. Slash disposal and utilization. 9. Prudent use of chemicals. 10. Outreach. 11. Public reporting. 12. Public involvement.
Chain- of-Custody	N/A	Tracking the chain-of-custody is required where manufacturer intends to label product as "certified."	Recordkeeping and tracking of chain-of-custody information required.	N/A	N/A	N/A
Time Table for Evaluation and Certification	SFISM is not a certification program. The membership must reevaluate their compliance annually. The owner/CEO must stipulate each year that the organization was in substantial compliance with the program during the previous operating year.	Certificates are in place for five years with annual audits.	Periodic audits required.	Established by state committees.	Identified by company in its EMS policies.	A five year management history is accepted minimum.
EMS vs. Performance Standard/ Combination	Combination of a performance program and EMS.	Combination of EMS and performance measures.	Performance and EMS.	The plan is essentially EMS, to qualify for cost sharing, landowners must meet certain performance standards.	EMS, although companies set performance goals within the system to ensure continuous improvement.	Performance measures.
Permitted Labeling	Labeling under SFISM is not an option at present.	Yes. On product and off product labeling permitted dependent upon percentage of certified wood in final product.	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A
Label Monitoring	N/A	Labeling on product and off product is monitored by the certifier.	Labeling on product and off product is monitored by Green Tag.	N/A	N/A	N/A
Dispute/ Resolution Process	Contact AF&PA directly or the SFISM State Implementation Committee.	Initial complaint addressed to certifier by complainer; if unresolved it moves to the Secretariat; if still unresolved it moves to Board; if still unresolved to Dispute Resolution Committee for final decision.	Initial complaint addressed to evaluating forester. If unresolved, complaint goes to National Forestry Association.	Forwarded to USFS for exceptions.	In 3rd party certification, the significance and description of the audit findings ultimately rest with the lead auditor.	Appeals process through state committees.
COSTS
Auditing Costs	Borne by the member organization.	Generally borne by the organization being audited.	Costs borne by landowner.	Cost share variable depending on who/how plan prepared. Other implementation borne by landowner. Administration, audit, etc., borne by government.	Borne by company for system development. Generally, company bears cost for 3rd party audits.	$0
Membership Costs	Membership in AF&PA is on a graduated scale based on the type of organization and the size of the organization within the type. For example, non-industrial forest landowners do not have the same dues structure as industrial forest landowners.	Membership fees : Northern individual--$75; NGO $150, for-profit organization with >15 employees $300; for-profit with <15 employees $150. Southern individual $38; NGO $75; for-profit with <15 people $75; for-profit with>15 people $150.	$100 set-up plus per acre fee.	N/A	Unknown	$0
Other Costs	Costs for AF&PA SFISM State Implementation Committees, BMP training, logger training programs, and etc., are supported by member contributions to the state programs.	Certified operations pay annual program fees to FSC for use of the logo. Certifiers pay annual accreditation fees to FSC.	Periodic accreditation fees.	N/A	There may be costs associated with development of EMS and conformance to it.	$15 subscription to Tree Farmer magazine.